News

UAE Is Ready To Test New Face ID Technology In Service Delivery

Published

5 years ago

February 22, 2021

uae is ready to test new face id technology in service delivery

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It looks like UAE citizens won’t be required to identify themselves using government-issued documents in the near future. The country’s government has decided to greenlight an official trial of a new facial recognition technology (face ID technology) to further develop the services provided by the private and government sectors alike.

The decision was made at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, which was chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai. “In a meeting today, we have approved a facial recognition technology to verify the identity of individuals instead of submitting a lot of documents,” tweeted His Highness.

If the initial trial turns out successful, the ministry will expand the use of the facial recognition technology and support the launch of a related set of services in some private sector institutions.

Besides being convenient and efficient, citizen identification using face ID technology could also help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and other infectious diseases. Similar contactless identification solutions are currently being deployed across airports, banks, and private businesses.

The Cabinet also approved the National Standards Manual for Statistical Data to provide a unified framework for the collection, processing, storage, and presentation of statistical data. The goal here is to ensure a high level of quality in all statistical activities, which play an essential role in supporting important governmental decisions.

Also Read: Dubai Police Use Futuristic Technology To Read Murder Suspect’s Mind

The manual covers eight basic topics: economic statistics, social and demographic statistics, education statistics, employment statistics, environment statistics, buildings and housing units statistics, and administrative divisions of each emirate.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Cabinet reviewed a study dealing with the prevention of mental and physical disabilities and reducing the mortality rate among children by performing premarital screenings for genetic diseases. According to the study, premarital genetic tests can reliably predict the risk of developing genetic diseases.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.